Concern the UK’s AI ambitions could lead to water shortages

Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to make the UK a “world chief” in Synthetic Intelligence (AI) may put already stretched provides of ingesting water beneath pressure, business sources have instructed the BBC.

The large knowledge centres wanted to energy AI can require massive portions of water to forestall them from overheating.

The tech business says it’s creating extra environment friendly cooling methods that use much less water.

However the division for science, innovation and know-how mentioned in an announcement it recognised the crops “face sustainability challenges”.

The federal government has dedicated to the development of a number of knowledge centres across the nation in an effort to kick begin financial progress.

Ministers insist the notoriously power-hungry server farms shall be given precedence entry to the electrical energy grid.

Questions have been raised concerning the influence this might need on the federal government’s plans for clear power manufacturing by 2030.

However much less consideration has been given to the influence knowledge centres may have on the provision of contemporary, drinkable water to houses and companies.

Components of the UK, within the south particularly, are already beneath menace of water shortages due to local weather change and inhabitants progress.

The federal government is backing plans for 9 new reservoirs to ease the chance of rationing and hosepipe bans throughout droughts.

However a few of these are in areas the place new knowledge centres are set to be constructed.

The primary of the federal government’s “AI progress zones” shall be in Culham, Oxfordshire, on the UK Atomic Power Authority’s campus – seven miles from the positioning of a deliberate new reservoir at Abingdon.

The 4.5 sq mile (7 sq km) reservoir will provide clients within the Thames Valley, London and Hampshire. It isn’t recognized how a lot water the huge new knowledge centres now deliberate close by may take from it.

The BBC understands Thames Water has been speaking to the federal government concerning the problem of water demand in relation to knowledge centres and the way it may be mitigated.

In a brand new report, the Royal Academy of Engineering calls on the federal government to make sure tech firms precisely report how a lot power and water their knowledge centres are utilizing.

It additionally requires environmental sustainability necessities for all knowledge centres, together with decreasing the usage of ingesting water, shifting to zero use for cooling.

With out such motion, warns one of many report’s authors, Prof Tom Rodden, “we face an actual danger that our improvement, deployment and use of AI may do irreparable injury to the atmosphere”.

The tech business tends to be cagey about water consumption. Most UK knowledge centres contacted for this text didn’t reply to our inquiries.

Knowledge centres use contemporary, mains water, relatively than floor water, in order that the pipes, pumps and warmth exchangers used to chill racks of servers don’t get clogged up with contaminants.

The quantity used can differ significantly relying on a variety of elements together with the encircling atmosphere; websites in colder, wetter elements of the world are likely to require much less.

Dr Venkatesh Uddameri, a Texas-based skilled in water assets administration, says a typical knowledge centre can use between 11 million and 19 million litres of water per day, roughly the identical as a city of 30,000 to 50,000 folks.

His broadly quoted calculations are primarily based on arid, or semi arid, climates and don’t keep in mind current effectivity enhancements or developments in AI.

Microsoft’s international water use soared by 34% whereas it was creating its preliminary AI instruments, and an information centre cluster in Iowa used 6% of the district’s water provide in a single month through the coaching of OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Local resistance to data centres is growing around the world, notably in areas the place water is scarce.

In Chile, Google stopped constructing an information centre following considerations about its water use, and it redesigned the cooling system at one other in Uruguay following native protests.

Within the UK, Thames Water has warned knowledge centres they may face restrictions on use throughout heatwaves.

In 2022, the corporate mentioned it might assessment knowledge centres’ water use because it ready to introduce a hosepipe ban throughout a summer time draught.

However Foxglove, a bunch of campaigning attorneys, discovered proof from Thames Water’s technique paperwork the next 12 months that the agency nonetheless didn’t seem to understand how a lot water its present knowledge centre clients had been utilizing.

Thames Water declined to remark. It signposted its current five-year plan, which has been accepted by the federal government.

This states that it has no authorized obligation to service companies, and might select to limit or refuse water to industrial clients; however this was written earlier than the federal government designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure, that means they may face fewer planning restrictions.

Thames Water filed an objection to a planning utility for a brand new knowledge centre in a cluster in Slough, close to Studying, in 2021.

However different proposals within the space have since succeeded: for instance in August 2024 the agency Yondr introduced that it might be constructing its third knowledge centre campus there.

Foxglove CEO Martha Darkish mentioned: “The federal government should urgently clarify how its plans for brand new knowledge centres is not going to threaten our long-term provides of ingesting water.”

A authorities spokesperson mentioned: “We recognise that knowledge centres face sustainability challenges equivalent to power calls for and water use – that is why AI Progress Zones are designed to draw funding in areas the place present power and water infrastructure is already in place.”

As well as, current modifications made by the water regulator Ofwat would “unlock £104bn of spending by water firms” within the subsequent 5 years.

The info centre business argues that fashionable websites are already extra environment friendly. Different cooling strategies which don’t require a lot water, equivalent to free air cooling and dry cooling, are evolving.

Closed-loop cooling, which entails reusing water, shall be deployed in Microsoft’s new knowledge centres in Phoenix and Wisconsin.

Aaron Binckley, vp of sustainability at Digital Realty, acknowledged criticism round knowledge centres’ water utilization however claimed that the sector was making “important strides”.

His firm, which has 300 knowledge centres worldwide, is trialling a brand new AI software which analyses operational knowledge and identifies water-saving measures. He says it’s predicted to preserve almost 4m litres of water per 12 months.

Clearly, that’s at the moment an expectation relatively than a actuality, however Mr Binckley says it proves that “AI can drive sustainability in addition to technological progress”.

In 2024 the Environment Agency wrote in a blog that by 2050, England alone would wish an additional 5 billion litres of water each day – it says that is the equal of two million wheelie bins-full – simply to serve the inhabitants.

However the regulator now wants extra knowledge as a way to think about new knowledge centres’ future wants.

In the intervening time, it’s urging knowledge centres to forecast and plan their water consumption – and to discover their very own sources of water, equivalent to water reuse.

“Assembly the elevated water demand isn’t just for the water business to resolve,” says a supply.